I’ll Never Badmouth the US Postal Service Again
While UPS and Fed Ex continue to nickel and dime me with fuel surcharges, pick up surcharges and residential pickup and delivery surcharges, the USPS continues to amaze me with their reliability, transparent fees and …. every once in awhile an astounding display of customer service.
Last Thursday I realized that, despite good planning, I was about to run out of the free, Priority Mail shoeboxes that have enabled me to offer free shipping to my holiday doll buyers. I reordered online, as I always do, but I realized that I’d never receive them in time for holiday sales. I called half a dozen post offices in New York City and New Jersey, but no one stocks the shoebox size. I was about to give up and special order expensive cartons from my local shipping supply house but decided to try the general USPS phone number. Somehow, I got to a real live person in under two minutes, and this real nice lady in Indianapolis offered to expedite me a package of shoeboxes. We chatted for a few minutes — both of our sons turned out to be veteran Wal-Mart employees — and I sure wish I knew her name, because I owe her a giant thank-you hug.
At 9 o’clock this morning — SUNDAY! — my doorbell rang. I admit I cursed a few times, figuring it was someone buzzing the wrong apartment and not having had my morning coffee. But I looked through the intercom camera and there was …. a US Postal Service worker! Sunday morning! With my shoeboxes.
The lines at the Post Office continue to be unbearably long here in New York City, but I can buy postage and labels online, order FREE daily pickups, who doesn’t love those free shipping cartons? When I do walk to Planetarium Station (named for our neighbor the American Museum of Natural History and Hayden Planetarium) the mailmen beg me to sell their stuff on Ebay and we share a few laughs.
Ok, I admit it, my local UPS driver and Fed Ex Kinko’s office staff are pretty nice too.
Happy Holidays, everyone!
